I'm locking this topic. If you have any questions about this contest, use the Questions forum to ask them.
This contest is now over. No more entries will be received.
Arik and Chunk, you guys haven't voted yet on any of the creations. read the rules if need be.
Voting is prolonged until Feb. 7, but by then I will have an official count of votes and who has won.

We've had a great first contest and I look forward to the next one, starting Feb 14.Permalink

Quoting Rabid Goldfish
Before you have a vote, you might want to define how big each category is. What I might consider a Standard might be a HEavy size to someone else.

Okay, so standard would be most of your AEGAKS models. I generally define it as a mech that is taller than 15 bricks and smaller than 30 bricks. Mini would be 15 bricks high or lower plus no chicken walkers. MBS would be the heavy version of hardsuits. Superheavy could be a MBS on steroids or a super gigantic chicken walker like the Titan II, Thunderer or Tyrant.Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
Okay, so standard would be most of your AEGAKS models. I generally define it as a mech that is taller than 15 bricks and smaller than 30 bricks. Mini would be 15 bricks high or lower plus no chicken walkers. MBS would be the heavy version of hardsuits. Superheavy could be a MBS on steroids or a super gigantic chicken walker like the Titan II, Thunderer or Tyrant.

Then I would have to say mini or Standard. Definitely going to have to try a new AEGAKS, since I got the LDD upgrade.Permalink

Quoting andros tempest
mini would get my vote, but I've noticed what I call micro some other designers are calling mini?

I think a size guide would be useful (as was suggested already).

something along the lines of

height in bricks scale name
0-6 micro
7-12 mini
12-20 standard

something along those lines. By the way I just made these figures up, if anyone has an official guide or something it would be useful.

there aren't exactly any official standards for these things. about the only three official Mech types I actually now of are chicken walkers, hardsuits, and your everyday giant humanoid Mechs such as Gundams, Mech Battle Suits, and so on.Permalink

Contest name: Contest #1
Mecha type: Mini mech
Special theme: none
Rules: The contest starts January 1st and ends February 1st. You MUST build an entirely new mecha. NO REUSING A FRAME YOU HAVE ALREADY BUILT. Participants will be judged on how many ratings of 4 or more they receive. If you are going to participate in the contest, you must at least post a comment on all of the other participants entries. You can only post your entry in this group until February 1st, at the close of the contest. YOU MUST REFER TO THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS ENTRIES IN YOUR ENTRY. You can only post one entry for this contest. Follow MOCpages rules, Mecha Contests group rules, and have fun building!

EDIT: Rules Revision 1:
All Participants must rate the other participants' entries from 1-5 in a comment. 1 being the worst, 5 being the best (but not necessarily meaning perfect).Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
The official rules and guidelines for contest #1:

Contest name: Contest #1
Mecha type: Mini mech
Special theme: none
Rules: The contest starts January 1st and ends February 1st. You MUST build an entirely new mecha. NO REUSING A FRAME YOU HAVE ALREADY BUILT. Participants will be judged on how many ratings of 4 or more they receive. If you are going to participate in the contest, you must at least post a comment on all of the other participants entries. You can only post your entry in this group until February 1st, at the close of the contest. YOU MUST REFER TO THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS ENTRIES IN YOUR ENTRY. You can only post one entry for this contest. Follow MOCpages rules, Mecha Contests group rules, and have fun building!

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
The official rules and guidelines for contest #1:

Contest name: Contest #1
Mecha type: Mini mech
Special theme: none
Rules: The contest starts January 1st and ends February 1st. You MUST build an entirely new mecha. NO REUSING A FRAME YOU HAVE ALREADY BUILT. Participants will be judged on how many ratings of 4 or more they receive. If you are going to participate in the contest, you must at least post a comment on all of the other participants entries. You can only post your entry in this group until February 1st, at the close of the contest. YOU MUST REFER TO THE OTHER PARTICIPANTS ENTRIES IN YOUR ENTRY. You can only post one entry for this contest. Follow MOCpages rules, Mecha Contests group rules, and have fun building!

Okay, a few questions. First, I'm assuming it's meant to be on LDD, yes?

You said to mention the other participants. Do we do this by name? Or do we just state that it's a contest entry? If it's by name, then you should post a list of every participant's name. And you said a referance to their entries? If so, those who post last have an advantage of knowing, versus those who post first.

Also, on the scoring. Each participant is to score the others 1 through 4. It's not based on the smileys, right?

I realize that these questions are pretty easily answered, but I want it to be absolutely clear, and I'm very tired tonight.Permalink

the rule of thumb is to post links to the other entries in yours, which means editing it as each new entrant joins the competition (but since you need to comment on that entry anyway grabbing the link at the same time is no big deal).

I'll try to get an entry made before the start to post on or around 1st of january.

so just so I'm clear, mini - that's the scale too small to take a minifig.

And this is the ONLY group the entry can be placed in, so no blogging or flickr then? (or deviantArt) Permalink

Quoting andros tempest
the rule of thumb is to post links to the other entries in yours, which means editing it as each new entrant joins the competition (but since you need to comment on that entry anyway grabbing the link at the same time is no big deal).

I'll try to get an entry made before the start to post on or around 1st of january.

so just so I'm clear, mini - that's the scale too small to take a minifig.

And this is the ONLY group the entry can be placed in, so no blogging or flickr then? (or deviantArt)

Minimech scale is mechs of normally similar style to, and between the sizes of the TAM-6 and the UGM-7 (both by Andrew).Permalink

well, "mini-Mech" is a general style that was extremely popular over on the Design by Me gallery on LEGO.Com. the very first mini-Mech was made by... I don't remember who, but Bio here is the one that got it all started with his XT-series. since then it's become a very widespread style with many different series being developed, including Bio's UXM-1 and TAM-6, Chunkblaster's TAM-X, LTE's AIMS and ATASM, my various MMT series, and units by Jak, Richie, and ED.
lately they've also been gaining a bit of extra size, as shown by Bio's UGM-7 series and most of LTE's latest work.

You said to mention the other participants. Do we do this by name? Or do we just state that it's a contest entry? If it's by name, then you should post a list of every participant's name. And you said a referance to their entries? If so, those who post last have an advantage of knowing, versus those who post first.

Also, on the scoring. Each participant is to score the others 1 through 4. It's not based on the smileys, right?

I realize that these questions are pretty easily answered, but I want it to be absolutely clear, and I'm very tired tonight.

Okay, so I will answer ALL your questions.

1.) No, it doesn't have to be LDD. LDD would be preferable, as we can get a closer look at the mecha, but you can post real life MOCs.

2.) I guess I should've been more clear on the rules. You must post a link to all the other entries. So, if I post first, I would have to edit my entry each time someone posts a new entry.

3.) Yes it is based on smilies. I think your idea is a good one for later contests, but for now, just smilies.

Quoting andros tempest
the rule of thumb is to post links to the other entries in yours, which means editing it as each new entrant joins the competition (but since you need to comment on that entry anyway grabbing the link at the same time is no big deal).

I'll try to get an entry made before the start to post on or around 1st of january.

so just so I'm clear, mini - that's the scale too small to take a minifig.

And this is the ONLY group the entry can be placed in, so no blogging or flickr then? (or deviantArt)

For now, no posting it on any other site. That might give you an unfair advantage.

And to answer your other question, you can fit a mini-fig into a mini-mech. It's just WAY harder to do and results in (usually) a mech that is very bulky.Permalink

Quoting ariklego ...The Director!
well, "mini-Mech" is a general style that was extremely popular over on the Design by Me gallery on LEGO.Com. the very first mini-Mech was made by... I don't remember who, but Bio here is the one that got it all started with his XT-series. since then it's become a very widespread style with many different series being developed, including Bio's UXM-1 and TAM-6, Chunkblaster's TAM-X, LTE's AIMS and ATASM, my various MMT series, and units by Jak, Richie, and ED.
lately they've also been gaining a bit of extra size, as shown by Bio's UGM-7 series and most of LTE's latest work.

Smilies ranking? Sorry LTE, but that just won't work. If you insist on using this system, I'll have to sit this one out. Some people get more viewers than others, and MOCpages' rating system is prone to get messed up really badly.Permalink

I'm inclined to agree with the above comments about the voting thing. I hardly get any traffic compared to some of you guys, I'm a clear candidate for last place regardless.

Personally only the members of this group's votes should count, therefore add your vote as part of your comment. Like LTE said, 5 for brilliant, 1 for meh, and at the end we tally up the total scores we gave each other.

A month is plenty of time for us all to have viewed and commented on the competition. Obviously we DON'T vote on our own MOC. Permalink

Contest #1:
Rules Revision 1:
All Participants must rate the other participants' entries from 1-5 in a comment. 1 being the worst, 5 being the best (but not necessarily meaning perfect).

Bio, Rabid, I hope you guys are happy. I didn't want to lose some of my best builders. Plus, this idea is better.

LTE, as I said, smilies are messed up and are not a good indicator of who should win. Not even just smilies from people in the group. I'd be happy to sit out this one and act as a judge, like Jak suggested.Permalink

Quoting andros tempest
I'm inclined to agree with the above comments about the voting thing. I hardly get any traffic compared to some of you guys, I'm a clear candidate for last place regardless.

Personally only the members of this group's votes should count, therefore add your vote as part of your comment. Like LTE said, 5 for brilliant, 1 for meh, and at the end we tally up the total scores we gave each other.

A month is plenty of time for us all to have viewed and commented on the competition. Obviously we DON'T vote on our own MOC.

What Andros said is exactly what I mean. Only group members comments are the ones that count. for example, lets say me and Bio both got MOCpages ratings of 8 people liking our mecha. THose ratings don't matter. it's the ratings that the group members put in their comments. is this now clear?Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
What Andros said is exactly what I mean. Only group members comments are the ones that count. for example, lets say me and Bio both got MOCpages ratings of 8 people liking our mecha. THose ratings don't matter. it's the ratings that the group members put in their comments. is this now clear?

It's clear, but I still think we need to keep ratings out of this. I might be inclined to comment on every creation, but rate them all something like a 2 or 3 star, just so that my creation would have a better chance of winning. Of course, I wouldn't do that, but someone who would join might decide to.

I still think we need to have a judging system. As I said above, I'd be glad to sit out and judge, in fact, I'd LIKE to sit out and judge this one.Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
What Andros said is exactly what I mean. Only group members comments are the ones that count. for example, lets say me and Bio both got MOCpages ratings of 8 people liking our mecha. THose ratings don't matter. it's the ratings that the group members put in their comments. is this now clear?

It's clear, but I still think we need to keep ratings out of this. I might be inclined to comment on every creation, but rate them all something like a 2 or 3 star, just so that my creation would have a better chance of winning. Of course, I wouldn't do that, but someone who would join might decide to.

I still think we need to have a judging system. As I said above, I'd be glad to sit out and judge, in fact, I'd LIKE to sit out and judge this one.

If judging is the way we're going, I would be willing to help on that front. :)Permalink

to make it simple on the judging part, why not just restrict it to the admins and mods? I'm just a little concerned about impartiality. What's to stop you rating your own higher than the other members? Not that I think you would as I've always found your feedback to be honest, but I think it might put some people off joining if a judge is actually in the competition as well.

I personally prefer the previous suggestion, but it's your competition whatever you decide is fine with me. Permalink

'fraid I'm gonna have to step outta this one fellas. Seems I won't have enough time, since not only am I working on a huge city on my MC server, but myorder of Ninjago just arrived - I won't be active for a while. ;)Permalink

Quoting JakTheMad JTM
'fraid I'm gonna have to step outta this one fellas. Seems I won't have enough time, since not only am I working on a huge city on my MC server, but myorder of Ninjago just arrived - I won't be active for a while. ;)

Aw man, I was really looking forward to what you came up with. Well, I sure hope no one else drops out. :(Permalink

LTE, I've been thinking about the means of judging a bit more, and I can honestly say that I'm sure the current means will not work. The problem with peer review among friends is that there's a fine balance between being nice and being truthful. What you're asking is that we all are completely truthful in rating each other's MOCs. Now, some people are probably going to like everyone's creations so much that they'll rate them all a 5/5 or 4/5. If all ratings are 5/5 or 4/5, then there really isn't a competition since everyone pretty much tied. Some people might also be brutally honest and rate a creation 2/5 or 1/5. This could hurt feelings/cause tensions/etc., which I know I certainly don't want among this group and among the Elite Mechaniers. While I'm willing to see how it goes this time around, I'd really like some solid, working judging to be implemented for the next contest.Permalink

Quoting BiO.Andrew (Minecraft has lost a dimension!)
LTE, I've been thinking about the means of judging a bit more, and I can honestly say that I'm sure the current means will not work. The problem with peer review among friends is that there's a fine balance between being nice and being truthful. What you're asking is that we all are completely truthful in rating each other's MOCs. Now, some people are probably going to like everyone's creations so much that they'll rate them all a 5/5 or 4/5. If all ratings are 5/5 or 4/5, then there really isn't a competition since everyone pretty much tied. Some people might also be brutally honest and rate a creation 2/5 or 1/5. This could hurt feelings/cause tensions/etc., which I know I certainly don't want among this group and among the Elite Mechaniers. While I'm willing to see how it goes this time around, I'd really like some solid, working judging to be implemented for the next contest.

Meh, it's his contest, lets just see how it goes. And I'd like to say that for voting we should all use different scale to the smileys (eg; I'll probably give you all 4 or 5 smileys because they deserve some "I Like It"s, but I might give the same mech a 3 out of 5 for the comp because it's good but not spectacular).

DISCLAIMER: If I give your mech a 3 or lower it just means that it is an average mech, I'm reserving 5s for real showstoppers. So no hard feelings, yeah?Permalink

Just so no one is alarmed, I won't be posting my entry until probably the final week of the contest, due both to issues with my time management and me wanting to present you guys with the best possible mech I can muster up. :)

Also, I'm probably going to be making a series out of the frame, with a separate model purely as an entry to this contest.Permalink

Quoting BiO.Andrew (Minecraft has lost a dimension!)
Just so no one is alarmed, I won't be posting my entry until probably the final week of the contest, due both to issues with my time management and me wanting to present you guys with the best possible mech I can muster up. :)

Also, I'm probably going to be making a series out of the frame, with a separate model purely as an entry to this contest.

Quoting BiO.Andrew (Minecraft has lost a dimension!)
Just so no one is alarmed, I won't be posting my entry until probably the final week of the contest, due both to issues with my time management and me wanting to present you guys with the best possible mech I can muster up. :)

Also, I'm probably going to be making a series out of the frame, with a separate model purely as an entry to this contest.

wait, you're entering? oh boy. Bio in a mini-Mech competition is like Bobby Flay in a steak challenge... :S :PPermalink

Guys I've noticed a couple of you have just cut and pasted the address from the message bar into your mocs as the link to the other competitors. If you need any help creating a hyperlink to the actual moc here is a quick tip:

Quoting andros tempest
Guys I've noticed a couple of you have just cut and pasted the address from the message bar into your mocs as the link to the other competitors. If you need any help creating a hyperlink to the actual moc here is a quick tip:

I haven't changed any pictures in mine and ASSUMED that no one else would be either. The wording obviously has to change as each new entrant joins the competition.

Remember if you do decide to make changes (before a clarification has been made) that the scores will be based on what the other contestants saw when they gave their score (and I'm also assuming we can't change those either).

I honestly think it's cheating to make wholesale changes to the design once it has been entered into the group pool.

I think the only fair way to deal with this is if LTE thinks it's ok to make changes that we wait till 1st Feb before giving our final scores (that is when judging closes) and therefore everyone will have had time to make the changes they want. Otherwise I'd say anyone caught deliberately editing the design to get a higher score should be disqualified as it isn't in the spirit of the competition. Permalink

Quoting andros tempest
I haven't changed any pictures in mine and ASSUMED that no one else would be either. The wording obviously has to change as each new entrant joins the competition.

Remember if you do decide to make changes (before a clarification has been made) that the scores will be based on what the other contestants saw when they gave their score (and I'm also assuming we can't change those either).

I honestly think it's cheating to make wholesale changes to the design once it has been entered into the group pool.

I think the only fair way to deal with this is if LTE thinks it's ok to make changes that we wait till 1st Feb before giving our final scores (that is when judging closes) and therefore everyone will have had time to make the changes they want. Otherwise I'd say anyone caught deliberately editing the design to get a higher score should be disqualified as it isn't in the spirit of the competition.

I think it should be alright, as long as it's done before Feb 1st when the judging starts. but that's just my opinion.

hmm, it may not have been wise for me to make those edits to my design. if necessary, I can probably return to the original design (perhaps also adding in the revised version for storyline uses).

by the way, did we ever decide who was going to do the judging, and how we were going to do it?

EDIT: well, just in case LTE or anyone else disagrees with me on this, I've edited the original unchanged version of my entry back in.Permalink

Quoting ariklego ...The Director!
I think it should be alright, as long as it's done before Feb 1st when the judging starts. but that's just my opinion.

hmm, it may not have been wise for me to make those edits to my design. if necessary, I can probably return to the original design (perhaps also adding in the revised version for storyline uses).

by the way, did we ever decide who was going to do the judging, and how we were going to do it?

EDIT: well, just in case LTE or anyone else disagrees with me on this, I've edited the original unchanged version of my entry back in.

Okay, so I'm fine with changes to the design and changes to pictures IF you received considerably lower scores because of a problem.

People can also change their ratings at any given time.

Just to let you all know, this group is more about sharing our designs, helping less inexperienced builders and growing more experienced ones than competition. Though of course, competition makes it WAY more fun :)
I want to bring out the best in all of you.

Arik, I would suggest you look over the rules again, especially the revisions.Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
Okay, so I'm fine with changes to the design and changes to pictures IF you received considerably lower scores because of a problem.

People can also change their ratings at any given time.

Just to let you all know, this group is more about sharing our designs, helping less inexperienced builders and growing more experienced ones than competition. Though of course, competition makes it WAY more fun :)
I want to bring out the best in all of you.

Arik, I would suggest you look over the rules again, especially the revisions.

hmm, I think I'll just keep everyone's original ratings, just to be fair.Permalink

Turns out my entry will probably be coming a few weeks early, as I've nailed down the main base design and I'm currently working on all of the models. As with the UGM-7 series, I'll be creating five frame variants, and all of them will be completed before I start posting any of them. I'll chose my favorite and post it as the first variant after the base is released.

This thing is going to be amazing. It surpasses the UGM-7 in height, and I've got some killer paintjobs lined up.

Quoting BiO.Andrew (New minimech being built! Check out the Mecha Contests group!)
Turns out my entry will probably be coming a few weeks early, as I've nailed down the main base design and I'm currently working on all of the models. As with the UGM-7 series, I'll be creating five frame variants, and all of them will be completed before I start posting any of them. I'll chose my favorite and post it as the first variant after the base is released.

This thing is going to be amazing. It surpasses the UGM-7 in height, and I've got some killer paintjobs lined up.

I've been noticing that some of you posted your contest mecha in the Elite Mechaniers group. I don't know where else you posted them, but in the rules/guidelines here at Mecha Contests it says you can't post your entries into any other group. It's fine, that rule no longer applies to the contest,but in the future make sure you read the rules/guidelines better.Permalink

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
I've been noticing that some of you posted your contest mecha in the Elite Mechaniers group. I don't know where else you posted them, but in the rules/guidelines here at Mecha Contests it says you can't post your entries into any other group. It's fine, that rule no longer applies to the contest,but in the future make sure you read the rules/guidelines better.

Oh really? So if we can't post our mechs in any other group, why have you posted YOUR entry in every mech group on MOCpages?

Quoting LTE CEO of MMWI
If you read the above carefully Bio, you would notice that I said that that rule was now obsolete and therefore WHY I posted my mech in "every group."

Hmm. Interesting. You realize that changing so many rules in the middle of a competition can and will confuse/anger some people?

LTE, I mean no offence here, but did you actually fully think this through first? Myself and I know BiO have been concocting contests for a while now, so just consider the idea of breaking an idea to colleagues first to make sure no-one else is planning it.Permalink

Also LTE, (and I mean no offense either) if there's one person that would really benefit from participating in contests run by more experienced mech builders, it would probably be you. I won't ask you to stop these challenges, but I don't think what's going on right now is a stable base for ongoing and fairly judged contests. I was actually planning on starting an official Elite Mechaniers contest group just a few days before you started up this group, so I think you can understand Jak's and my frustration. I'm still going to be starting that group, but I probably won't do it until this first contest ends.Permalink

well, looks like we're almost through this contest. I'm pretty sure everyone except Bio has gotten their entry up.

hmm, unless Bio can come up with something really extraordinary (which I wouldn't put it past him, especially in a mini-Mech contest :P) it looks like Thomas Z's gonna be the winner. (I don't actually know this, I haven't added up the scores or anything)Permalink

hmm, unless Bio can come up with something really extraordinary (which I wouldn't put it past him, especially in a mini-Mech contest :P) it looks like Thomas Z's gonna be the winner. (I don't actually know this, I haven't added up the scores or anything)

Ed hasn't posted anything either.
But I agree, so far Thomas Z.'s mech is on top.Permalink

whether we can or can't post the designs in other groups, I'm not going to till the contest is ended. At which point I also intend to put up the rejected designs and the updated version I've been working on to reflect some of the suggestions to improve it. (plus correcting the acronym glitch I completely missed).

as of now though I'm a little busy off line to do much with this entry. Permalink

Alrighty, four out of the five APMS-1 variants have been completed! I'm pretty sure I know which one I'll be using, so once the fifth variant is completed, I'll begin work on taking pictures of the base and my entry. I'm going to experiment a bit with photo editing, so that might tack on a few more days until the final release. I estimate I'll get the base and my entry up by probably the 20th, providing nothing pops up. :PPermalink

I just wanna let you guys know where things are at with me as far as my entry is concerned. As of now, all five APMS-1 variants have been completed, and I'm in the process of taking pictures and writing backstory. However, I've been dragged into Minecraft head first, and production on an adventure map I've been wanting to make for a while now is in full swing. If I can pull myself away from it long enough to write something and take the necessary pictures, you can expect the base and my entry sometime tomorrow. If we're lucky.Permalink

Quoting BiO.Andrew (All Purpose Mechanical Soldier series 1 coming soon!)
I just wanna let you guys know where things are at with me as far as my entry is concerned. As of now, all five APMS-1 variants have been completed, and I'm in the process of taking pictures and writing backstory. However, I've been dragged into Minecraft head first, and production on an adventure map I've been wanting to make for a while now is in full swing. If I can pull myself away from it long enough to write something and take the necessary pictures, you can expect the base and my entry sometime tomorrow. If we're lucky.